In retail establishments and particularly self-service grocery stores, large open-faced freezers are used to display frozen goods for sale and maintain the goods sufficiently refrigerated so that they will remain frozen within the freezer. In the open-top freezer, sometimes referred to as a coffin-type freezer, it has been necessary to place the goods sold through the same open face from which access is gained to the cause by the customer in picking out the goods to be purchased. Because these freezers are often quite deep, it becomes a time consuming process to remove the goods from the boxes in which they were shipped and place them piecemeal at the appropriate place within the freezer.
Another approach has been to employ large baskets having the selection of goods to be placed in the freezer. With this approach, the depleted basket is removed from the freezer through the open portion along the top. The basket full of the replacement goods is then lifted from the carrier and placed into the appropriate position in the freezer, replacing the basket just removed. As these baskets tend to be quite large, they may be usually heavy, putting unnecessary strain on the service personnel in lifting the basket in and out of the freezer.
In both of the above-discussed methods of loading and unloading a freezer, there is considerable time wasted on the part of the service personnel is replacing goods within the freezer. Particularly with regard to the use of racks having the replacement goods therein, it requires usually strong personnel to move the racks when fully loaded, from one position to another. Again, because of the selection process required to find appropriate personnel to load and unload these racks or baskets, time may be lost in replacing depleted goods in the freezer. In addition, inefficient use of various personnel may result.
Specific examples of other refrigerators using doors to remove the contents include the U.S. Pat. No. 591,401 to Harrison where there is shown a door to an icebox providing access for loading and unloading. The door forms part of a bench to support the goods displayed as well as providing a closure for the refrigerator. The bench rests on a track inside the icebox when it is utilized to support meats for display. Another track is located outside the box and is actually an extension of the interior track inside the box on which the bench typically rests. The portion of the track exterior to the box cooperates with a door and the bench to support them when the door is moved to an open position. When it is desired to remove the meats, the door is opened, creating an opening in the icebox allowing the bench to be moved to the extended portion of the track exterior of the icebox. The door is actually hingedly secured to the bench and when the bench is drawn out of the box the door is carried along and turned down to form an extension of the bench. As can be seen from FIG. 1 of the Harrison et al patent, the portion of the track exterior to the sidebox is relied upon in supporting the bench and door when the bench is moved to the position exterior the box as shown by the dashed lines. The problem with this approach is that it leaves parts of the device in the aisles, which patrons or service personnel may be using. In addition, there is an unusually large number of parts simply to remove the meat from the icebox.
Other refrigerating cases having access means to the interior portion of the refrigerator includes the U.S. Pat. No. 2,631,438 to Webber. The Webber patent discloses an open-top, self-service refrigerator display case having a plurality of closure doors hingedly mounted about a horizontal axis at the rear wall of the display case to provide accessability for changing or shifting articles on display. In the preferred embodiment as shown by Webber, the closure doors are relatively high on the display case, requiring the service personnel to lift the goods from his cart up to the top portion of the display case to refurbish the bin. The U.S. Pat. No. 2,773,362 to Sheitlin relates to an upright freezer closed by an insulated door which is hingedly mounted about the vertical axis. Inside the cabinet are located vertically-shaped freezer shelves which are each provided with a door pivoted at the front edge of the shelf from a closed vertical position to a horizontal position once the insulated door is opened. The Sheitlin approach suffers from many of the same problems discussed with respect to Harrison in that there are an unusual number of interrelated parts. For example, Sheitlin requires an insulated door in addition to several doors which pivot outwardly once the insulated door is removed. Furthermore, Sheitlin does not relate to a device where the door actually forms part of a flowpath for refrigerated air.
Other examples of horizontally pivoted doors in refrigeration apparatus include the U.S. Patents to Manshel and Dickinson et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,136,558 and 2,938,363, respectively.
There have been numerous attempts in providing carts or other carriers for loading goods into a refrigerator. An example of this is the U.S. Pat. No. 2,928,262 to Litman. In this patent, there is shown, although it is not described, a rollable cart which appears to have means for supporting a plurality of vertically spaced trays or pans. These trays are apparently inserted to racks in the storage space of the disclosed refrigerator through the door openings. From the drawings, it appears that an operator would have to lift the goods from the cart into the desired shelf of the refrigerator. Other examples of the use of carts and refrigerators are shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,543 to Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,535 to Perez et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,118 to Rainwater. All of these patents relate to refrigerators and cart systems where the cart is rolled in its entirety with its goods already stocked therein into refrigerated cases replacing a cart that has been depleted by the patrons in the store.